Silence is golden: from Soho to Witheridge

Soho residents must be scratching their heads, having grown used to years of hooting drinkers

Town and country have united. The bells of a Devon village have been silenced as a hush descends on the bars and clubs of Soho. It seems that Amy Lamé, London’s night-time tsar (salary: £116,695, courtesy of Mayor Khan), has had an early night and the district of Soho is paying the price. A report this week says that you will struggle to get a drink beyond 11pm. Silence, it seems, is golden. The residents of Soho must be scratching their heads having grown used to years of hooting drinkers and clubbers hoofing from one gaff to another and then spilling out at dawn.

Now the Soho slumberers share something in common with a man who this week officially became The Most Unpopular Man in Witheridge. As yet unnamed, he’s the chap who has managed to silence the ringing at St John the Baptist, where those Devon church bells have chimed without ceasing since 1754.

When this poor sulk, an abattoir worker, moved to the village four years ago and took a flat 30 metres from the church, the bells’ chiming mechanism was at the mender’s. So, after a long day of sawing up bones, he could repair to Witheridge and grab a good night’s sleep. But then, post-pandemic, the chimes were restored and the poor sod was faced with a tinkling cascade of chimes every 15 minutes and bongs on the hour.

Having had his initial offer of paying £3,000 to have the bells modified so they chimed only during the day refused, he sought help from the parish council. It imposed a noise abatement order and paid to alter the system so they did indeed chime only during the day.

Now the man claims he has been subjected to violent threats because of his whingeing and subsequent action. And I’m with him, and the residents of Soho, because lack of sleep is pure agony. I want a full eight-hour undisturbed stretch. Heaven is a place of blackout blinds and silence. And I’ll tell anyone moaning that you can’t get a night-time drink in Soho that it’s much more fun getting squiffy in the daytime.